


The Ballad of Green and Blue

by uncaringrose



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Like siblings, M/M, basically them becoming awesome friends, bros lance/pidge, i know nothing about computers, lance and keith are oblivious idiots, not a romantic story, pidge and lance centered, she/her pronouns for pidge, slight angst, slight backstory, the pairings are vey minor, these children miss home
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-15
Updated: 2016-08-15
Packaged: 2018-08-09 01:09:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7781071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uncaringrose/pseuds/uncaringrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pidge never considered Lance to be a prime choice for a friend. But, maybe, he's not so bad. They have more in common than she thought, and he's not as annoying as she thought. Her brother may be missing, but she may have found another one to help with the heart ache.</p><p>*</p><p>Or: Lance and Pidge spar and realize they enjoy each others' company more than they first did. Snippets of their growing friendship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ballad of Green and Blue

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanwork i'm posting here! I have no idea how to write romance, so I decided not to do Klance or Shallura (but i did hint at it), and I really wanted to write something about Lance and Pidge. They seem like the kind of friends who eventually get close enough to call one another brother/sister. And I like writing bittersweet things. Please tell me if you see any spelling/grammar mistakes! (I only looked over it like once). Also, I hope I tagged it correctly.

It was easy to note that Lance and Hunk were close. They would usually be seen walking through the castle together, often with Lance very loudly complaining to his cuddly friend. Sometimes you’d catch them laughing together, perhaps after one of them cracked a joke. Or maybe they were just laughing because of the absurdity of it all. They were comfortable with each other. If you’d ask them, they would more than likely say they were best friends. 

Pidge, on the other hand, was close to Shiro. Not quite as close as the yellow and blue paladins. As their relationship was not the same. They were friends, most certainly, and they cared very deeply for each other- they all did. However, they didn’t randomly peruse the castle, or cook together in the kitchen. They didn’t joke with each other (if they did, it was a very bad dad joke from Shiro), and they didn’t complain to each other. Most of their relationship revolved around comfortable silence or quiet conversations while Pidge tinkered with electronics. Sometimes they’d train together, but Shiro would grow scared he’d harm her fairly quickly and would mostly give her pointers. It also didn’t help that Shiro felt like he was made of concrete. She didn’t mind, but occasionally she wanted an actual partner to practice with besides the training bot (she’d gotten to level three thank you very much). 

Maybe that’s how it started.

Keith was in his room resting after a long day of training, Shiro was talking to Allura about something (both were blushing slightly), and Hunk was in the kitchen. Pidge had grown restless, actually growing bored with her computer for once. So, she found her way to the training deck, clad in her armor. When she entered, she found Lance standing in the middle of the room, just finished taking down one of the bots. He, too, was in his paladin armor. He turned to her and flashed her a bright smile.

“It’s hard to find a time to train by myself. Usually Keith or Shiro are in here and I just excersise in my room.” Pidge nodded in understanding, stepping closer as he took off his helmet. “I’ll leave it to you now.” However, she stopped him as he tried stepping past her. If Pidge was anything, she was observative. And that boy was hardly sweating, probably because he hadn’t been in the training deck for more than half an hour.

“Let’s spar,” she prompted, smiling a little. Lance looked a bit surprised at first, but quickly recovered. He smirked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think you’ll be able to take me,” he taunted, but put his helmet back on. Pidge just snorted and took her stance. 

They spent some time testing the waters, half thrown punches, weak kicks here and there. Eventually, they had a good understanding of the other’s strength, and the real sparring began. A sharp kick to Lance’s chest sent him stumbling back, but he recovered and side stepped out of the way before the green paladin could land her punch. He struck at her side, causing her to collide with the floor. She jumped up and ran at her target, sliding between his legs and tripping him. As soon as his body hit the ground, she sat on his back, pinning him down.

“Give up?” Pidge found herself smiling as the blue paladin wiggled and whined under her.

“Not quite,” he said, a second before he suddenly turned sharply, making Pidge lose her balance. This caused them to switch places, with Lance laying on his back on her stomach. “Yeah. Now I am.” He snickered, not even bothering to look at her. Pidge huffed, deciding to accept defeat this time. This time. 

“Fiiine. Uncle. Get your ass off of me,” she grunted, trying to shove him off with now sore muscles. Lance gasped.

“Pidge! Language! What would dad say?” His hand flew up and dramatically rested on his forehead. “Shiro will be so disappointed!”

“Like he already isn’t disappointed with a son like you,” she murmured, smiling despite herself as Lance finally rolled off of her.

“And what’s that supposed to mean!?” While they bantered, he held out his hand for her to take.

“Oh ya know,” she began, grasping his hand. However, as soon as she stood, her knee found a nice spot in his stomach. The blue paladin fell once more. “It must suck to have a son that lets his guard down.”

***

Pidge and Lance didn’t really realize how much they began to spar with each other afterwards. Typically when the others were resting and in between missions they found themselves in the training room. Throwing punches and kicks, giving one another tips on their stances or footing. Sometimes they’d fight a bot together, getting up to level four and then five. And they’d be smiling. A lot.

They got along very well, even though Lance still got on Pidge’s nerves on occasion. When she had first met Lance, she never saw herself actually becoming genuine friends with him. He was loud, obnoxious, and talked way too much for her liking. While she enjoyed calm silence, he liked to stir up arguments or loud conversations. However, she slowly started to realize he was a lot more than that.

She hadn’t realized how much they sparred until one day she had to turn down Shiro’s offer to train after her and Lance had just gotten done. The older man had been surprised, as she had never turned down the offer before. He looked at her for a moment, maybe waiting for a reason, but eventually just shrugged and walked off. Most likely to ask Keith instead.

As time went on, they found themselves spending more time together outside of training. Lance would sometimes wander over while she was on her computer, and just watch. During those times, he was oddly silent. Watching but not really looking. She knew he would get lost in his thoughts from time to time, and assumed he’d seek her out because he knew she wouldn’t ask. She didn’t mind, and actually enjoyed his company. He didn’t touch her equipment like Hunk did, didn’t prod for personal information like Allura, didn’t brood awkwardly like Keith, and didn’t try to ask too many questions like Shiro or Coran.

Then he caught her by surprise.

“Why not use the 6623 code to decipher the markings?” Pidge jolted at the sound of his voice, looking over at him as he peered at the screen. She pushed her glasses up further on the bridge of her nose as she looked at him. On one of their recent missions, they had come across an abandoned Galra ship with odd markings engraved into the front. She had been trying to figure them out for days.

“What,” she finally replied, tilting her head slightly. He looked like he was going to respond, but stopped and just made a motion that asked ‘may I?’ Pidge shrugged and pushed the computer over to him, and his fingers flew across the keys. Within moments, words were appearing next to the markings. Saying things like “For the Empire” or “We fight for Zarkon”.

“I recognized the markings from that one planet we visited not too long ago. Shta, I think it was. You had created a code that translated them to the rough equivalent of english. It looks like some Galra were just a little too in love with their precious empire.” The blue paladin shrugged as he finished, pushing the laptop back over to his smaller friend. She stared at it, impressed.

“Wow, Lance. I didn’t think you’d remember something like that.” Her mouth had twitched up in a happy smirk. “I’ll go show Allura! Thanks a lot!”

“No problem,” he responded, waving as she ran out of the room. Standing up, he stretched before walking to the kitchen to bother Hunk.

***

“Laaaaance,” Pidge called, peering into one of the lounges. She had been looking for the blue paladin for over an hour. Having managed to download a few earth movies, she was searching for someone to watch them with. The others were either busy or she simply didn’t want to spend more time with them. If she was being honest, she wanted to watch them with Lance. They had similar movie tastes and she was growing fond of their banter. And if she was being really honest with herself, it was starting to feel like she had a brother again. An obnoxious, cocky brother, but a brother no less.

“Hey, Pidge,” Keith greeted her as he spotted her. She nodded her head as her casual “hello”. “Why are you looking for Lance?”

“I was hoping we could hang out,” she put simply, hoping that he wouldn’t ask what they would be doing in case he wanted to join. She didn’t wanna listen to their awkward flirting that was hidden under annoying bickering. Keith raised an eyebrow.

“You and Lance actually hang out?” 

“Yeah. Of course.” Pidge fumbled with the laptop pressed to her chest. “He’s actually a cool guy, when you get over his annoying qualities. Don’t tell him I said that.” Keith hummed in response. “Anyways, I need to find him. Have you seen him anywhere? Sometimes he just ups and disappears for hours.”

“Oh, he’s in his hangar.” The red paladin started walking away.

“Tha- Wait. How do you know that?” With the way the other stiffened, Pidge was certain his face was flushed.

“I was down there a little bit ago talking to Red. I heard him talking to Blue.” Without looking back, the red paladin quickly walked around a corner, leaving Pidge alone in the hallway. She smiled, shaking her head rather fondly. 

Not wanting to go through the whole process of getting to the hangar, she decided to wait in the main lounge for him to come to her after sending a quick message to his comm. She found Hunk sitting on the couch, playing with a mess of wires. He looked up as she came in, smiling at her in his own greeting. It was quiet as she sat down, leaving her computer on the table and opting to sit upside down on the couch. After a while, Pidge looked back over at their large friend, suddenly curious.

“Hey, Hunk?” He grunted, signaling he was listening. “How long have you known Lance?” The yellow paladin looked away from the wires, and faced his friend. He raised a finger to his chin in thought.

“About… four years? We went to the same high school, and he managed to talk me into going the Garrison. Why?”

“I was just wondering. You guys always seemed close.” 

“Yeah, well, I didn’t have many friends before I met him. Honestly, we were completely different people. Sometimes I’m surprised we’re even friends in the first place.” He was looking at the wires again.

“How did you become friends?” Pidge righted her position, actually intrigued. She didn’t miss the small smile that spread over their friend’s face, and the way his eyes glossed over.

“Lance is a good guy, you know that?” It seemed less like a question and more like a statement. “It was my second year of high school, I had transferred because my dad had gotten relocated. Anyways, I’ve always been kinda big, and I got teased a lot for it. Most of the time I ignored it. One day, though, this group of guys that Lance was friends with just wouldn’t stop. When Lance got there… Well, I haven’t seen Lance as angry since then. He screamed at them, and punched a couple of them after they tried saying it was just a joke. They ran off, and he never left my side after that. He never let anyone mess with me, and I eventually started going to the gym with him. He’s been my best friend ever since.” Hunk set the wires down for a second time, and chuckled softly as he leaned into the cushions. “I know he’s a major dork, and can be a little aggravating sometimes, but I wouldn’t trade him for the world.” He ruffled Pidge’s hair, and she smacked his hand away. She had a smile on her face as she did it.

“Yeah. I wouldn’t either.”

Later, when Lance and her were watching their movies in his room, she told him he reminded her of her brother. Tears pricked at his eyes, and she’d be lying if she said she didn’t see a bit of Matt in him. He even hugged like him.

***

“You remind me of my youngest sister,” Lance said, rather casually as he once again watched her fiddle with random code. Pidge smiled and asked why. “Well, you’re both independent and smart. You’re both kinda bossy- it’s true. Oh, and you’re both short. Hey! Put that pillow down! Pid-” The blue paladin fell backward, and Pidge sat on his stomach and continued to hit him with the pillow she had been using as a chair. “Have mercy!”

“Hmmm,” she hummed, pretending to think. “Nah.” And she continued her attack, his screams muffled by the fabric.

***  
“Do you ever miss earth?” The green and blue paladins were sitting in Pidge’s room as she repaired his music player. It had fallen off his bed the morning before when he was scrambling to get his gear on. Lance without music was an irritable Lance and no one wanted that.

“Of course,” Pidge replied, not looking up. “I miss my mom and my dog. I miss how everything made sense, ya know?” She smiled softly, closing the screen of the music player and handing it to her taller friend.

“Yeah. I know. I miss my family a lot.” Lance looked at the small electronic in his hand. “When… when we find your brother and brother, what are you going to do?” 

“What do you mean?”

“Like… I know you’re gonna be happy. But, will you want to stay with us, you know, Voltron? Or-”

“Of course I’m going to stay. And, hey, who knows. Maybe Matt and Dad will want to come along for the ride. I’m sure they’ll get a kick out of all of this!” Pidge didn’t talk about her father and brother too much, but in that moment, it seemed to just come flowing out. “Do you know how many space posters Matt has in his room? Some of them are just straight up galaxy print outs he got off Google. He also hogged all the glow- in- the- dark star stickers when we were younger. I used to complain about it to Dad. Mom didn’t really understand our love of space, and would just ask why I couldn’t just use the other stickers.” A short chuckle. “Stars will always be better than flowers- for me, at least.”

“Don’t let my sister hear you say that. I swear, she’ll defend flowers till the ends of the earth. She once drew a flower on my cheek while I was asleep- with permanent marker! I woke up to my brothers laughing at me, and my mom scolding my sister with a smile on her face.” Lance rubbed his cheek subconsciously while Pidge smirked. “Don’t get any bright ideas,” he added with a glare when he noticed her eyeing a marker on her desk.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” she replied, looking away. There was a brief silence before Lance started laughing. Only for Pidge to follow suit. They sat laughing, together, for a long time. Neither really knowing why, but not wanting to stop. With a few playful shoves, they were rocking back and forth with tears in their eyes and clutching their sides.

When Shiro came looking for Pidge, finding her door wide open with Lance half falling off the bed with his smaller friend curled up on the end of the bed- both with their eyes closed and smiles on their faces-, he couldn’t bring himself to wake them.

***  
“I don’t dance, Lance,” Keith spoke with a roll of his eyes as his friend twirled in the middle of the training room. The paladins were taking a break from training, and Lance found himself wanting to dance. He, of course, wanted a dance partner, but his red counterpart was having none of it.

“Ease up, mullet man! A little dancing won’t kill you!” After saying that, Lance did a rather impressive move that made it look he had zero bones in his body. For all intents and purposes, he was actually a very good dancer when he tried. “I bet Pidge would even dance with me,” he taunted, sticking his tongue out. The green paladin looked up from their place next to Shiro, smiling a bit. Neither boys noticed.

“Yeah, righ-,” Keith started, but was promptly cut off by Pidge skipping over, holding Lance’s music player.

“Sure, sounds fun,” she says, smirking at Keith as his jaw dropped open. “Come on, Keith. Live a little.” Pidge laughed, turning up the volume on the device and tossing it to the red paladin. Some horrible pop song her and Lance had listened to countless times started playing. The others groaned, but the two of them were already erratically moving their bodies. Or, well, Pidge was. If Lance could do anything, he could move to any kind of music.

The blue paladin took a moment and spun her as his head moved to the beat. They both laughed, and soon Shiro and Hunk were also dancing. Making a show of dancing something similar to the salsa with equally stoic faces before erupting into laughter, never once stopping. More cheesy songs filled the air one after the other. Keith was leaning against the wall, the music player now resting on the floor as he crossed his arms. Allura had stepped in and asked Shiro to dance, and Hunk and Coran found themselves doing a crazy dance similar to two squids trying to run on a tiled floor. Subtly, Pidge led her and Lance closer to Keith, before grabbing the red boy’s arm and tugging it into Lance’s hand. Effectively switching their spots. 

Lance saluted his short friend before forcing Keith to the center of the room. The teen struggled for a minute before allowing himself to copy the other boy’s movements while he tried to suppress a grin.

Time sped by, and for a while, they all forgot that they were in space fighting a seemingly endless battle. As everyone switched partners, some even dancing in trios, they let themselves go. They forgot any form of anger or sadness- if for a moment. They forgot that some of them were just children, that they had lives they left behind.

Shiro forgot the time he spent with the Galra, the heavy weight on his shoulders lifted as he twirled Allura. 

Allura, while she didn’t forget, she let her sadness for her people fall away. Smiling at her friends and laughing more earnestly than she had in awhile. Coran was doing the same.

Hunk allowed the dread that had built up from everything ease out of him, cracking jokes as a bad line in a song rang through the room. 

Keith let his anger be replaced with an odd type of happiness, ignoring the sirens in his head that he should really be training. Especially when Lance managed to pick him up with one arm to swing him upwards.

Lance forgot his supposed ‘rivalry’ with the red paladin, swinging his hips as the others laughed and moved. His family on the forefront of his mind, but he wasn’t thinking about how sad they must be. No, he was thinking about how much they would love to be there in that moment.

And Pidge. Pidge let the worry in her gut be replaced by hope. 

***  
“We’re not gonna be the same people when we go home.” 

The recent mission could have gone better, honestly. They had won, of course, but they didn’t win unscathed. Lance had to be in the healing pod for three days, and Shiro and Keith were still in them. Hunk was left alone for the most part, but he seemed a little distant, having been the one to carry Lance and Keith to the healing pods and having only been able to watch most of the fight. Pidge had gotten out of a pod shortly, having only a few scratches after a slightly rough fall down a steep hallway during their getaway. Though, Lance had nearly given her a heart attack.

They had been paired up for the mission to infiltrate a cluster of battleships, and while everything was still a little hazy, she distinctly remembered him taking a bullet for her. Well, the Galra equivalent of a bullet. She supposed he had no choice. She was busy hacking into their database on the main ship while the others distracted most of the forces, with Lance on look out. He had been taken by surprise when a galra drone dropped down from the ceiling, knocking his bayard out of his hand. He had seconds to react before the drone shot at Pidge, aiming for her head. His body stood between them, and the bullet pierced into his shoulder before she managed to toss his weapon back over. Lance shot the drone before it could pull the trigger again, sending it flying before he fell to the ground.

Pidge could still see the blood dripping down his armor. The sight wasn’t what scared her, however (Lance had gone through much worse and she already knew he would be fine. Hopefully.) It was the fact she was used to it was the problem. While she waited for Lance to leave the pod, her stomach was in knots at her realization. They all got hurt at one point or another. It was terrifying, when she thought about it. And she realized she didn’t like it. She hated not knowing when she’d lose someone. They were her family. Maybe it was the fact her and Lance had gotten a lot closer over the past few months, or that she was finally starting to feel the weight of the situation, but she suddenly felt so much love and trust for all of them.

And when Lance stumbled out of the pod, his surprise at seeing Pidge waiting for him was quickly masked with him trying to catch his breath as she ran straight into his arms. They hardly ever hugged, but she wanted to make sure he was real and alive. She wanted to make sure this all wasn’t some bad dream.

He wrapped his arms around her, like he used to do with his little sister when she’d run to him in the middle of the night because she had a nightmare. Somehow, small tears fell from both of their eyes, and that was okay. Allura, Hunk, and Coran came in a little later. But when they saw their state, sitting side by side and talking softly, they figured it was best to come back at a different time.

“No. We’re not,” Lance replied softly, squeezing her wrist as they sat watching Keith and Shiro. She could tell he was worried about the red paladin especially. Said boy had taken quite a beating after him and Shiro ran to Pidge and Lance to help them. She could still remember how cold her blood ran when she realized drones had filled up the hall in such a short time.

“Doesn’t that scare you?” Pidge’s eyes were still red, and she looked at the boy next to her. The boy she always thought was too much of a doofus to really talk to, but now was the closest thing she had to a brother while they were out there in the vast vacuum of space. He looked back at her with dull blue eyes, with dark shadows clouding his face. It hadn’t even been a year, and he looked older.

“Immensely,” is all he says before he turned back to the cryo pods. In a few days, he’ll be back to the old Lance. Obnoxious and loud. There was a part of Pidge that wanted that Lance at that moment, to distract her with banter or stupid jokes. But she knew better, and simply placed her head on his shoulder as they waited. 

***  
It was easy to note that Lance and Hunk were close. As was Shiro and Pidge. 

However, during restless nights, you can often see Pidge sneaking to Lance’s room or vice versa, to watch a movie, or simply to chat. When no one else is training, you can find them sparring, or finally beating the level six gladiator bot. And after every mission, you can find them somewhere in the castle, talking quietly to each other about what they miss. You can hear Pidge teasing Lance about his obvious feelings for a certain red paladin, or you can hear a cheesy joke echo through the vast halls.

Green and blue don’t always go together, but sometimes they find a way.


End file.
